Teaching assistant Sheila Sillery-Walsh from Birmingham was
touring the San Francisco, California jail facility in April with
her partner, Paul Rice, when she snapped a shot through the
window of a prison block with her iPhone 5C mobile phone.

“When I glanced at the photo on my mobile, I saw this dark
female figure in the picture. I looked at the window again and
there was no one in the room,” she told the Daily Mail

“I knew straight away that the woman in the photo was a ghost
and showed the snap to Paul,” she said to the paper.
“From that point onwards, I wasn't interested in the Alcatraz
tour anymore. I just kept looking at the picture over and over
again!”

A copy of the image provided to News Dog Media shows what appears
to be a young, dark-haired woman staring back at the camera from
the other side of a solemn cell at what’s been called one of
America’s most haunted sites.

Although the island penitentiary has not been operational in
decades, visitors claim to have spotted apparitions numerous
times in the past, and New York Magazine went as far as to say
years later it “remains ultra sinister, perversely
fascinating, iconic.”

Fascinating, indeed — Sillery-Walsh said she’s curious to know
who the mystery woman was, and suggested to the Mail that
“perhaps she was a female visitor of a prisoner and kept
returning.”

"When I first saw the photo, I tried to rationalize the
female figure away by saying it was just Sheila's
reflection,” added Mr. Rice. "But with closer
inspection, it's obvious that this is not the case at all. The
woman's hair and clothing is from a different era - it looks like
she's from the 1930s or 40s.”

“I have no logical explanation for the girl in the picture –
I’m baffled,” he said. “She’s staring right at the
camera, with a knowing look.”